Two, Including Passerby, Injured in Oregon Hit-and-Run Car Crash

An Oregon car crash in Scappoose, north of Portland, initially injured one woman then left a second woman seriously injured when she, in turn, became the victim of a hit-and-run driver after stopping to help, according to a recent dispatch in The Oregonian.

The newspaper, quoting a Multnomah County law enforcement spokesman, reports that the Northern Oregon auto accident began when a 30-year-old woman headed west on U.S. Route 30 “left the roadway, striking a guard rail near the Oregon Department of Transportation weigh station east of Scappoose.” The paper also notes that in the minutes prior to the crash “callers to 9-1-1 reported seeing a” car similar to the one that crashed “driving erratically and weaving in and out of traffic.” The Oregon car crash threw the driver from her vehicle, leaving her lying injured in the road’s median.

Moments later another woman, accompanied by her 23-year-old daughter, stopped to help the victim, while another driver positioned his car on the road “in an attempt to keep cars from striking the three women. But a westbound Pontiac Grand Am went around that car, striking both the injured woman in the center median and the good Samaritan’s daughter and then continuing west toward St. Helen’s” where she was stopped a short time later by police.

Let’s first pause for a moment to applaud the three people who stopped to try and help an injured motorist. We can all only hope that in a similar situation some generous person might do the same for each of us.

As any Portland personal injury attorney can attest, however, Oregon hit-and-run accidents are particularly serious and merit special attention both from victims and their families and from our legal system. When drivers fail to act responsibly there has to be some degree of accountability for their actions. Courts exist, in part, to provide that accountability offering people an opportunity to achieve the justice they deserve regardless of wealth or social standing.